N.J. veteran who sought to join ISIS sentenced to 35 years in prison

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N.J. veteran who sought to join ISIS sentenced to 35 years in prison
By: BY TED SHERMAN tsherman@njadvancemedia.com, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...ced_to_35.html

Tairod Pugh, a former U.S. Air Force mechanic from New Jersey, in a photo introduced at his trial last year on terrorism charges. (U.S. Attorney's office)

BROOKLYN--Tairod Pugh, an Air Force veteran from New Jersey who was accused of trying to join ISIS, was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison.

Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde in Brooklyn said the sentence sent a powerful message to those who support terrorism.

"The defendant turned his back on his country, and the military he once served, to attempt to join a brutally violent terrorist organization committed to the slaughter of innocent people throughout the world," she said.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis sentenced Pugh to the maximum term he faced.

"This isn't about whether you're a Muslim or a Christian or Jewish," Garaufis told Pugh. "This is about whether you're going to stand up for your country."

While he called Pugh's military service commendable, the judge said he squandered everything to betray his country.

"The work of the Islamic State is to destroy our way of life," Garaufis said.

Pugh, who cried in court, declared, "I am innocent."

Pugh's conviction last year marked the first case to reach a jury involving an individual attempting to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL.
According to federal prosecutors, Pugh's efforts to enter Syria from Egypt in January 2015 raised suspicions after he was challenged by Turkish authorities in Istanbul, who did not believe his claim that he was a pilot with U.S. Special Forces.

They returned him on a flight back to Egypt, where he was ultimately deported back to the United States and arrested a day later in Asbury Park where his father still lives.

Pugh, 49, was born in New York and grew up in Monmouth County. According to court filings, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1986 to 1990 as an avionics instrument system specialist and received training in the installation and maintenance of aircraft engine, navigation, and weapons systems. In an FBI affidavit, Pugh was said to have moved to San Antonio, Tx., after leaving the Air Force and converted to Islam in 1995, where he "became increasingly radical in his beliefs."

He was arrested just weeks after being fired from his job as an aircraft mechanic in Kuwait--accused of traveling to Turkey in an effort to cross the border into Syria and "fight violent jihad."